1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a locking mechanism in a connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been a connector provided with a lever which is rotatably assembled to either one of female and male housings in order to conduct an easy coupling of the housings. The lever is provided with a cam groove for introducing a mating housing, while the mating housing is provided with a pin projecting therefrom which can be inserted into the cam groove. For coupling both the housings, the lever is rotated with the pin inserted in the cam groove, and the housings are normally engaged with each other when the lever has arrived at a normal position.
However, it has sometimes happened that an operator suspends the rotating operation because he considers by mistake that the normal engagement of both the housings have been completed although the lever has not yet arrived at the normal position. On occurrence of such situation, the housings are left in a half engaged state.
Therefore, in order to be able to detect that the lever has been rotated up to the normal position, there has been proposed a connector having electrical detecting means in Japanese Publication No. JP-A-9-167657 of an unexamined Patent Application. In this connector, a lever and a mating housing are respectively provided with connecting terminals which can be contacted only when the lever has been normally rotated. Lead wires connected to the connecting terminals are guided to an exterior of the connector respectively and connected to a detecting circuit, which will be actuated by an electric signal transmitted according to a contact between both the connecting terminals.
In the connector having such detecting means of an electrical type, it has been necessary to provide a large detecting apparatus including the connecting terminals, lead wires and detecting circuit as described above, and accordingly, a number of components have been required, which results in an increase of manufacturing cost and incurs a large size of the connector.